TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of September 2, 2001

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
NEW
VALHALLA RISING
Clive Cussler
Cover of VALHALLA RISING

VALHALLA RISING

by Clive Cussler · Putnam

4 wks at #1 · 1 on list
3
CANE RIVER
Lalita Tademy

CANE RIVER

by Lalita Tademy · Warner

9 wks on list
4
2
HEMLOCK BAY
Catherine Coulter
Cover of HEMLOCK BAY

HEMLOCK BAY

by Catherine Coulter · Putnam

2 wks on list

Madness and murder rip through the suspense novel by the bestselling author Catherine Coulter. FBI Agent Dillion Savich is on a challenging case involving the kidnapping of two teenage boys when trouble boils up in his personal life. His younger sister Lily has crashed her car into a redwood in California's Hemlock Bay. Is it another suicide attempt, the second since the loss of her young daughter some seven months before? Savich and Sherlock discover that four of Lily's paintings, left to her by their very famous grandmother, artist Sarah Elliot, now worth millions, are at the heart of an intricate conspiracy. Lily and art broker Simon Russo are thrust into ever widening circles of danger that radiate from a notorious collector's locked room. Dillion Savich and his sister Lily both have to face their worst fears to survive.

6
1
ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS
E. Lynn Harris
Cover of ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS

ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS

by E. Lynn Harris · Doubleday

6 wks on list

When her wedding to John “Basil” Henderson didn’t come off as planned, Yancey Harrington Braxton flew off to L.A. and remade herself as mega-diva Yancey B. And Basil started concentrating on his career as a high-powered sports agent. But then Yancey’s first single, “Any Way the Wind Blows,” hit the charts, and now it threatens to blow Basil’s cover--if anyone learns who it’s really about. And it looks like the gorgeous (and ambitious) hunk Bart Dunbar might just have it all figured out.

8
AMERICA
Stephen Coonts
Cover of AMERICA

AMERICA

by Stephen Coonts · St. Martin's

3 wks on list

New York Times bestselling author Stephen Coonts brings the action close to home in this fast-paced military thriller, America Dispatched on a trial run, NASA's SuperAegis satellite has been created as the foundation of an international antimissle defense system. But moments after dispatch, it vanishes. Rear Admiral Jake Grafton fears something worse than a grave malfunction--he suspects sabotage... The USS America--the world's most technically advanced nuclear submarine--is launched on its maiden voyage. Then shortly after steaming out of harbor, the unthinkable happens. Pirated by terrorists, America disappears beneath the roiling waves of the Atlantic, its Tomahawk warheads aimed directly at the United States... An ingeniously calculated war has been waged--but the rouge enemy is far more insidious than Jake Grafton ever imagined. His mission: ferret out the core group responsible, overtake the stealth sub, and destroy it. But times is running out, and the race is on for Grafton to blow the covert operation out of the water before an entire nation is brought to its knees.

9
NEW
THE FORGOTTEN
Faye Kellerman
Cover of THE FORGOTTEN

THE FORGOTTEN

by Faye Kellerman · Morrow

1 wks on list

The unofficial caretaker of her small storefront synagogue, Rina is shocked when she receives a morning call from the police. The modest place of worship has been desecrated with anti-Semitic graffiti and grisly Nazi death-camp photographs. Rina's husband, Lt. Peter Decker, is also rocked by this outrage, which cuts close to the spiritual heart of his family, but he can't let his emotions get in the way of his duties. A suspect is soon in custody. Seventeen-year-old Ernesto Golding is one of L.A.'s children of wealth and privilege, a rich kid obsessed with haunting suspicions about the origins of his Polish paternal grandfather, who moved to Argentina after the Third Reich collapsed. Charges are brought against Ernesto, a deal is cut, and the vandalism case is eventually closed. Still, Decker has never abandoned the possibility that others were involved in the desecration. And his hunch is confirmed when, six months later, Ernesto is found brutally murdered along with his therapist, Dr. Mervin Baldwin, at the psychologist's exclusive nature camp that caters to the wealthy's troubled children. Suspicion falls immediately on Baldwin's psychologist wife, Dee, who has vanished mysteriously. Further probing by Decker fails to produce quick answers and simple solutions. For Decker and Rina, unraveling the truth behind Ernesto's violent death becomes more terrifying with each sinister twist, pushing them into the ghastly world of ruthless parents and damaged youths. Slowly, lethal secrets with roots in the horrors of a past generation surface, propelling Peter and Rina into a dreaded journey of dark and evil -- and of ultimate retribution.

10
1
FATAL VOYAGE
Kathy Reichs
Cover of FATAL VOYAGE

FATAL VOYAGE

by Kathy Reichs · Scribner

5 wks on list

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs takes forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan behind the scenes of a major commercial airliner crash in this pulse-pounding thriller. Temperance Brennan hears the news on her car radio: an Air TransSouth flight has gone down in the mountains of western North Carolina, taking with it eighty-eight passengers and crew. As a forensic anthropologist and a member of the regional DMORT team, Tempe rushes to the scene to assist in body recovery and identification. Tempe has seen death many times, working with the medical examiners in North Carolina and Montreal, but never has tragedy struck with such devastation. She finds a field of carnage. Many of the dead are members of a university soccer team. Is Tempe’s daughter, Katy, among them? Frantic with worry, Tempe joins colleagues from the FBI, the NTSB, and other agencies to search for explanations. Was the plane brought down by a bomb, an insurance plot, a political assassination, or simple mechanical failure? And what about the prisoner on the plane who was being extradited to Canada? Did someone want him silenced forever? Even more puzzling for Tempe is a disembodied foot found near the debris field. Tempe’s microscopic analysis suggests it could not have belonged to any passenger. Whose foot is it, and where is the rest of the body? And what about the disturbing evidence Tempe discovers in the soil outside a remote mountain enclave? What secrets lie hidden there, and why are certain people eager to stop Tempe’s investigation? Is she learning too much? Coming too close? With help from Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, who has his own sad reason for being at the crash, and from a very special dog named Boyd, Tempe calls upon deep reserves of courage and upon her forensic skill to uncover a shocking, multilayered tale of deceit and depravity.

11
2
BLUE DIARY
Alice Hoffman
Cover of BLUE DIARY

BLUE DIARY

by Alice Hoffman · Putnam

4 wks on list

Alice Hoffman, the bestselling author of The Rules of Magic, asks how we can find the courage to face the unthinkable in this compelling New York Times Notable Book. When Ethan Ford fails to show up for work on a brilliant summer morning, none of his neighbors would guess that for more than thirteen years, he has been running from his past. His true nature has been locked away, as hidden as his real identity. But sometimes locks spring open, and the devastating truths of Ethan Ford's history shatter the small-town peace of Monroe, affecting family and friends alike. Now, the police are at the door. Ethan Ford's life as an irreproachable family man and heroic volunteer fireman has come to an end—and Jorie Ford's life is coming apart. Some of the residents of Monroe are rallying behind Ethan. But others, including his wife and son, and wondering what remains true when so much is shown to be false—and how capable we really are of change.

14
7
OPEN SEASON
Linda Howard

OPEN SEASON

by Linda Howard · Pocket

5 wks on list

Historical bestseller data sourced from the New York Times Book Review, archived by Hawes Publications.